SAVE THE DATE! March 7th - 9th
We invite you to gather with us in community once again to receive some crazy wisdom. Explore and learn from holy fools & sacred clown energies. Led by Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Barbara Mainguy, and Peter Blum, we will discover that an integral part of this process is to work with our stories.
We will engage in activities such as Talking Circles, Hypnotherapy and other sure to be surprisingly fun and exciting practices.
Holy Fools, Sacred Clowns, and Crazy Wisdom
It’s been said that “Nobody fools a fool!” Fools have been important since time immemorial. During the Middle Ages, only the court jester could mock the King. Fools can speak truth to power with impunity. They can disseminate their crazy wisdom without fear of retribution. In these three days of playful foolishness, we will examine why now, perhaps more than ever, we are in a time of need of crazy fools.
In Lakota culture, Heyokah takes the backward approach to things, turning things upside down because they don't look right, invoking the power of reversal. Coyote - a mythical trickster figure - often teaches by mirroring our least attractive traits. If people are adorning themselves with jewels, Coyote might pick up turds and march around as a fashion show. Coyote does the opposite of what is correct.
In this event, we aim to help you discover a more complete view of your inner landscape, including fools and tricksters, and develop the ability to turn a liability into an inner resource. You can wear it proudly, being the weird one. As therapists or healers, we ask “what you do when all the acceptable approaches don't work?” This is when we need our inner fools and tricksters.
We may make masks, puppets, dolls, participate in guided imagery and group hypnosis, explore how to develop community support through talking circles, ceremony and ritual, dialogical exercises, storytelling, and all the other activities Coyote gatherings have offered in the past. The end result -- you and your inner fool will go home together comfortable with each other and understanding each others' purpose and goals.
Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Barbara Mainguy, and Peter Blum have been fooling themselves and others for centuries (okay… a couple of decades together, and much longer separately).
